A range of new books and reports on antisemitism offer important insights but need to go further to escape the confines of orthodoxy
This article first appeared in Vashti. It was written in December 2024 and January 2025, but reflects issues and questions that I’ve been thinking about for some time. It’s worth stating here that I much admire the books and reports mentioned below, I just want them to go further and forge a new and more inclusive path.
Version 1.0.0
Of the writing of books on antisemitism there is no end, as Kohelet might have said had he lived in the 2020s. And verily, there has been an enormous outpouring of words on the subject in the last decade or so. Many of those words have been journalistic, ephemeral and not very analytic. But in recent years, quite a few have made it into book and report form, making it easier to examine them for their positions, assumptions and approaches.
As I finish writing this on 14/1/2025 it feels like a ceasefire/prisoner exchange deal is on the verge of being announced. I very much hope it is. Even if it happens, the war will not necessarily end, and I suspect that Palestine marches will continue.
I wanted to write something on the police restrictions placed on the planned National Palestine March on January 18th. In short, despite previously having agreed to it, the police have banned the PSC from beginning their march outside Portland Place, the BBC headquarters, which the PSC hoped to use to highlight criticisms of the BBCs coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Jewish and pro-Israel groups (and sadly the line between the two is increasingly non-existent) called for the march to be banned or the route changed due to the proximity of the starting point to Central Synagogue (the entrance to which is in Hallam Street), pressure which was amplified by politicians and the press. Last week the police caved on this and said they would use the Public Order Act to prevent the PSC using that starting point on that day, explicitly due to a supposed need to protect synagogue-attending Jews on Shabbat. In the last couple of days, the PSC has said they will reverse the route – starting at Whitehall and ending at the BBC. Despite the fact that this would avoid the arrival of the marchers clashing with the end of Shabbat services, and very few shul-goers would be around, the police have said that the restrictions around Portland Place will remain, showing a predictable lack of understanding of the times when most Jews are in shul.
